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MHS girls improve to 8-7

Sports reporter

In the midst of an impressive 7-2 run its past nine games, the Marion High School girls' basketball team is looking better by the day.

That doesn't mean everything has been smooth sailing.

The victories have included an overtime game against Hoisington, a one-point win against Republic County, a slugfest against rival Hillsboro, another one-pointer Jan. 29 against Nickerson, and a come-from-behind victory Friday at Lyons.

"The girls have learned a lot of lessons," Savage said. "I hope they're done."

One of the most important has been learning how to hold on to a late lead, but in the Lyons game it was something completely different.

"I told them no matter who it is, or what we did before, we've got to throttle them," Savage said.

That was before the Warriors tipped-off against Lyons, a team they had beat 51-23 in December.

This time, MHS found itself down 14-3 in the first quarter.

"It didn't look like we were ready to play," Savage said.

Still trailing in the second quarter, Savage inserted reserves Anna Laurin, Bridget Lundy, and Amanda Richmond to help provide a spark.

"Those girls came in and played hard," Savage said.

Trailing by four to the start the second quarter, Savage kept most of his starters on the bench, and reserves kept them in the game.

Midway through the third quarter the Warriors kept up the pressure on both offense and defense and finally wore down the young Lions, taking their first lead.

They eventually won 56-45.

Savage knew playing a team twice in the same season can be tough, even if the team doesn't feature any seniors.

"They were a heck of a lot better than they were the first time," he said. "They're going to be [great] the next few years."

Kayleey Heerey and Julia Zeiner led the way for Marion with 19 points each.

Kimber Hardey had six points, Lauren Helmer four, Richmond and Kristen Steinborn three, and Lindsay Hett two.

The victory moved Marion to 5-1 in the MCAA, and 8-7 overall.

This came after a 1-5 start to the season.

At third place in the league, it's a far cry from the two-victory season of a year ago.

But Savage is hoping with five games still left in the season the girls aren't worrying about the standings.

"I haven't heard it, and I hope it's not," he said on whether or not that was an issue.

But he's not going to argue with winning.

"They are getting more confident all the time," Savage said.

Nickerson

Another confident-booster came Jan. 29 when the Warriors defeated Nickerson in front of their home crowd, 44-43.

Heerey led the offensive attack again with 16 points, while Zeiner and Hett each scored 11.

It looked bad for MHS at the start when Zeiner picked up a second foul just one minutes, 48 seconds into the game.

Savage didn't hesitate sitting her the rest of the half.

MHS played well without one of its top-scorers leading 13-8 after one quarter and 22-18 at the half.

Heerey picked up the slack with 13 points in the first half.

Chelsea Childs of Nickerson scored 15 points and gave the Panthers their biggest lead at 35-31 at the end of the third quarter with a basket.

The teams battled back and forth before Zeiner hit a shot to give MHS a 43-42 lead with three minutes left in the game.

The score remained that way until Zeiner hit one of two free throws with 17.1 seconds left.

Ten seconds later the sophomore fouled out, and Nickerson was at the line down by one with seven seconds remaining.

After one free throw was made, Heerey was then fouled with 5.9 seconds left.

She entered the game with a streak of 23-out-of-24 free throws made, but had already missed one earlier in the game.

"I told the official I was going to take a timeout after she made the second one," a confident Savage said with a laugh.

However, she missed the front end of the one-and-one, and the Panthers rushed down for one last shot.

But they were never able to get a shot off, and time ran out.

"They're just doing a nice job of not panicking, and playing with a little bit of poise," Savage said.

The three other Warriors who scored, Steinborn, Lundy, and Hardey, each had two points.

Helmer battled through sickness to give Savage some good minutes on the floor.

With seven seconds left, he wanted her on the floor.

"[She] was the one person I wanted in-bounding the ball when we got down to the very end," Savage said.

At 8-7 overall with just five games left, it's not a long shot that the team could play host to a first-round sub-state game.

Ten or 11 victories could be good enough for a top-four seed and a home game, before the rest of the tournament heads to Hillsboro.

The Warriors played at Haven Tuesday before this issue went to print, and will be at home Friday for the Queen of Courts winter homecoming game against Halstead.

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